From the above article: "Ion drives have been used on spacecraft since the 1960s and work by firing out a stream of charged particles that propel the vessel forward. As well as being carbon neutral, they are less likely to go wrong and cheaper to maintain than conventional engines because they have no propellers, turbines or fuel pumps to break down. The only problem was that, in Earth’s gravity, the thrust produced by the drive wasn’t enough to overcome the weight of the batteries needed to power them. Until now."

Is it doomed to be merely a kid's toy or should the turbofan/jet engine industry be worried?

KelvinD

22nd Nov 2018, 17:31

This had a mention on the BBC early this morning. The bloke who had the vision and has worked for years to try to achieve it is a Brit! Good luck to the man (regardless of nationality), I struggle with the idea of all those electrons squirting out the back of an aircraft and making it move. Why doesn't my telly throw itself backwards from time to time?:)

PPRuNe Towers

22nd Nov 2018, 17:34

Try putting it on Channel 5 ?:E

Rob

Flypro

22nd Nov 2018, 17:59

BBC 1 makes it go left !!

tescoapp

22nd Nov 2018, 18:22

ion drive you get more thrust getting the Fo to have a [email protected]@k in the bog pointing rearwards than you do from the drive.

Jetstream67

22nd Nov 2018, 18:33

ion drive you get more thrust getting the Fo to have a [email protected]@k in the bog pointing rearwards than you do from the drive.

LED lights, Cordless drills and Lithium batteries were a bit like that once . . Lets check back in 10 years shall we ?

currawong

22nd Nov 2018, 22:22

" As well as being carbon neutral"

Soooo, the electricity is delivered by fairies that don't eat anything then...

Art Smass

23rd Nov 2018, 01:16

Can see lots of issues with those dangly wire thingys and baggage trucks etc. in the commercial world... ermm can anyone re-thread this????

NutLoose

23rd Nov 2018, 01:16

Harleys use an iron drive

Gertrude the Wombat

23rd Nov 2018, 11:05

LED lights, Cordless drills and Lithium batteries were a bit like that once . . Lets check back in 10 years shall we ?
Wot, you mean like 3G phones? "They'll never catch on, you'll need a phone the size of a brick to have a useful ten days or so of battery life." That one's got worse rather than better - now phones are being sold with "makes it through an entire day if you don't use it for anything much" as a positive selling point :yuk:

ORAC

23rd Nov 2018, 11:11

Might be carbon neutral, however.....

While there are environmental benefits from a combustion-free plane, Barrett flags up that the ionized nitrogen chemistry could lead to production of nitrogen oxide and ozone. Further studies are needed to establish what risks this poses and whether, as in combustion cars, mitigating technology can reduce this production to acceptable levels. From an energy saving point of view the electroaerodynamic plane is battery powered and so does not benefit from getting lighter during journeys as planes using up fuel do. The benefits of zero combustion emissions could outweigh this but for now the pros and cons are still in the balance.